


Nochebuena

by Kireii-yume (kireii_yume)



Series: Kireii-Yume's 25 Days of Ficmas 2017 [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, M/M, Reader can be either gender, Requested, no pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-05
Updated: 2017-12-05
Packaged: 2019-02-11 02:01:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12924951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kireii_yume/pseuds/Kireii-yume
Summary: You and Lance both miss Earth, so it's time to bring some Christmas traditions to space.





	Nochebuena

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! This was a request fill from my tumblr! It's my first xReader fic, so let me know how it is!  
> No pronouns are used so the reader can be whatever gender you want!

The tree wasn’t going to fit.

That was your first thought as you surveyed the difference in height between the top of the tree and the doorway to the common area. When Team Voltron had landed on this planet, the natives had been more than content to give the Paladins a tree when they’d overheard Hunk and Pidge reminiscing about Christmas traditions, but they hadn’t considered size at all. This outlandish-looking tree, so different from the evergreens you were used to, was so tall that it had been a miracle you’d even gotten it into the castle ship. Of course, you’d had help from Shiro, Hunk, and Pidge, but they’d had to do other things once it actually got into the ship, and it was left to you to move it where you wanted it. After all, you and Lance were the ones who mainly wanted to decorate. 

“Hey babe, need some help from the team’s resident sharpshooter?” Speaking of Lance, there he was. You turned and, sure enough, there was your boyfriend, handsome as always, leaning against the wall and giving you a flirty look. You smiled at him fondly and then turned back to the task at hand.

“Well, unless you can sharpshoot the doorframe so it’s taller, I don’t know how much you can do.” Your words might have been taken as harsh, but your gentle smile showed just how much you really did love this man, your perfect boyfriend, with whom you were about to have your first Christmas. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Lance told you with a wink as he took the tree and did his best to reorient it. As you watched, your fond smile only grew--just a few months ago, you weren’t even sure if you would live or die, and now you were here with the paladins of Voltron. They’d rescued you from the Galra ship--you’d been captured from your Earth home at some point, but didn’t remember when--and all had taken you in, accepted you as one of their own. The castle ship’s inhabitants were now so close to you, even in just a few short months, that you couldn’t imagine life without this crazy group.

And then there was Lance, the one you were closest with the most quickly. You’d opened up to him about missing Earth, your family, the life that once was, and in return he had done the same. The two of you spent endless nights reminiscing, talking about what you missed most, and more often than not at least one of you teared up, if not actually cried. Then as both of you were more comfortable together, Lance had found in you his first confidant, the person that he could really tell anything to. Because to you, he was a person, not an integral part of Voltron, he felt more comfortable being vulnerable, voicing insecurity and worries. He’d talked about how he missed Blue and wondered why she wouldn’t let him back in (you were always quick to reassure him that it there was nothing wrong with him and that he was an amazing paladin). From time to time, he also mentioned feeling like a seventh wheel, like someone who just didn’t bring anything to the team. It baffled you how someone so perfect, so wonderful, could feel so horrible about himself. 

He put on a brave face for the team, of course, too insecure to show insecurity. Naturally, he overcompensated a little bit, playing up the fact that he was the paladin of the red lion and exaggerating his importance. He told you once that he said those things in the hopes that he’d believe them himself. The rest of the team didn’t realize it, but Lance really was having a hard time, and that’s why you’d jumped at the chance to celebrate Christmas just like all of you did back on Earth. It would take his mind off everything.

When you broke from your reverie, Lance had actually managed to get the tree through the doorway. “Wow, how’d you do that?” You asked before Lance popped out from behind the tree, covered in its leaves. 

“There’s nothing Lance McClain can’t do!” You laughed at his bombast, walking over to grab the relatively small box of ornaments that Hunk and Pidge had made with Allura. 

“Alright then, Sharpshooter, how about helping me put these up?”

“Heck yes!” Lance went through the ornament box with gusto, more than ready for decorating. “I love Christmas, my family always went all out celebrating.” 

“Really?” You asked, wanting to keep the conversation going. Lance’s eyes lit up as he smiled at you, and you were struck by how much he looked like a happy child, instead of the teen who, more so than most, had the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

“Yeah. My family didn’t do much Christmas Day though, we always did Nochebuena instead.” Lance perched on his tiptoes to get ornaments toward the top of the tree.

“Nochebuena?” You almost bumped into Lance reaching to put another ornament up high, and he took the opportunity to brush a kiss across your cheek. He loved physical affection more than just about anything, and you definitely couldn’t complain about it. 

“Yeah, it’s a Latino thing. Abuelita would cook us this huge dinner, with a ton of her famous pasteles and the best pork you’ve ever tasted in your life, and we’d be up pretty much all night. There was always Coquito too, it’s this coconut milk rum liquor. It’s incredible but Mama would always keep it from me because I was underage, so I never got more than a taste. We’d all dance and sing and open gifts and sometimes we’d go to Misa de Gallo, which was like night mass, but other times it’d just be my whole big family and like a million cousins just living it up until crazy late.” You giggled at the sheer glee in his life, absolutely adoring seeing no-filter Lance. He was always this way when talking about Earth, and you loved it. “We’d always play dominoes too, me and my cousins at least. It lasted forever.” You each put your last ornaments on the tree and stepped back to survey it. 

Despite not being conventional, the tree was absolutely exquisite. Pidge had made a few tech-oriented ornaments that lit up, so it at least had the happy glow of a typical Christmas tree, and Hunk’s ornaments were a work of art. He’d managed to pull together some Origami lions, so there were lions for each of the paladins, happily hanging from the tree. Lance had insisted on hanging up Red, of course, but had also asked to hang up Blue. You’d felt a pang in your heart when he very tenderly said, “Merry Christmas, girl,” as he placed her near the top of the tree. Smiling, you put an arm around Lance’s waist as both of you looked at the tree. “It’s beautiful,” you murmured, looking up at it. 

“Thank you, I aim to impress,” Lance said with a smile. You just silently squeezed him closer to you, chuckling as you rested your head on his shoulder. “But I’m definitely in second place, the beautiful one to my right has me beat.” 

“Hey, no making me blush,” you object. But at that comment, the mischievous glow in Lance’s eyes only brightened. 

Before he can really do anything else, an idea hits you. “Hey. You said you and your family used to play with dominoes on Christmas Eve, right?” 

“Yeah,” he said. “Why?” 

“Well, those wouldn’t be hard to figure out. Wanna do that? I mean, I’m not your family, but, I mean, it’d be something.” Lance kissed you on the cheek with a degree of tenderness that most didn’t expect the bombastic paladin to be capable of. 

“That’d be awesome,” he told you, practically beaming. 

“Okay, let’s see what we can do!”  
\--------  
After a few minutes, you’d managed to commandeer a large number of what looked like Earth memory cards but probably served a different Altean purpose. Pidge had said that she didn’t need them, that they were outdated by the ship’s standards, but they stood neatly on their end, so with a box full, you and Lance set up in front of the ersatz Christmas tree. Both of you spent what actually was hours but felt like minutes setting up elaborate structures, incredibly careful to not knock it down, until you knocked it down together (or one of you knocked it down prematurely and faced the other one’s mock rage). The night ended in you lying down next to each other, smiling at the tree and cuddling amidst the fallen domino substitutes, with a few gentle, languid kisses and lots of gentle kisses.

“Merry Christmas, Y/N,” Lance told you. “Even if it isn’t quite Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, Lance,” You reply, kissing him gently. When you break apart, he has a shit-eating grin on his face, the same one he always gets before a particularly corny pick-up line, and you brace yourself.

“Hey, Y/N.”

“Oh God.”

“How about I slip down your chimney and show you my North Pole?” he said, with a flirty wink. Sure enough, you blushed harder, and swatted at Lance with no real heat. 

“Someone’s on the naughty list this year,” you tell him, still red. “Way to kill the mood.”

“You know you love me,” he said in a singsong voice. 

“Quiznak, I do, for better or for worse,” you mutter, attempting to sound annoyed but failing miserably. Lance pulled you close to him for more cuddling and kissed your forehead, and you contentedly closed your eyes as you nestled into his side. How had you ever gotten so lucky?

**Author's Note:**

> If you want a request filled or just wanna chat with me, check out my [ blog! ](http://kireii-yume.tumblr.com)


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